Tag: Painting

Keeping a sketchpad is an important part of learning to draw and paint. It is a place where you can sketch, develop ideas and collect inspiration.

Some beginners in art feel that artists go from observing to creating a final piece of work, just like that. This is very rarely the case, artists use sketchpads for preliminary studies, rough notes, doodles, tonal scales, thumbnails and ideas. I use my sketchpad as part scrapbook and I stick all sorts of inspirational images inside. I also try out media in my sketchpad, for example layering paint, scratching into layered paint, painting onto new surfaces and anything else that I fancy trying.

There will be days, hours, months and sometimes years when you are feeling very frustrated with creating art. This is an element of the beginning start of learning to draw and paint for most people, but it might surprise you to realise that it doesn’t stop. Many professional artists feel this way regularly and it seems to be part of the process of creating. What can we do when it all gets too much?